Nokia is shutting down the Brisbane team that has been working on its open-source graphical interface framework, Qt, as rumours surface that the handset manufacturer plans to sell the framework.

Qt was originally developed by Trolltech, but it fell into Nokia's hands when the Finnish company bought it in 2008. Nokia senior software engineer Lorn Potter, who has worked for Trolltech/Nokia Brisbane for nine years, told ZDNet Australia that he and 50 other employees have received notices of termination, and are now searching for employment elsewhere, as Nokia plans to close the office.

On the Qt development mailing list, Potter wrote that teams working on QtLocation, Qt3D, QtDeclarative, QtMultimedia, QtSensors and QtSystems modules, as well as the computer integration/quality assurance teams, have all been shut down.

Nokia has been contacted for comment, but had not responded at the time of writing.

Former Nokia principal software engineer Atlant Schmidt also posted to the mailing list, stating that a source he considers to be reliable has said that Nokia is seeking to sell Qt off. The source's claims are corroborated by comments that Linux consultant and Phoronix founder Michael Larabel has heard.